


A Cloudy Wake

by somedayisours



Series: Hands in the Garden [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Character Death, Child Abuse, Child Soldiers, F/F, Family, Found Family, Gen, Kohana is in this, Murder, Shinju is Civet and Kohana is Beetle, Shinju would have been the one to teach Kakashi how to use his Sharingan, The italics story does not take place at the same time, Two stories being told at once, Violence, Why do I kill every parent in this series?, because this is really just the trimmings from TFSaB, but earlier during shinju's absence, hell if i know, if you couldn't put that together, she just isn't named
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 12:31:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18249908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somedayisours/pseuds/somedayisours
Summary: "But she loved being alive..." Leiko was many things, but the dead are always remembered with false fondness.





	A Cloudy Wake

•••

When she had been a young girl, only a handful of months before her father would come to collect her, Leiko was pushed into the river that ran to the north of her village. It'd been her cousin that had pushed her, he'd lured her away from my grandfather with the promise of adventure, and when they reached the raised bank alongside the river he had pointed into the water.

"Look!" Iwao had proclaimed, quite convincingly at the time, "There's the treasure!"

Every adventure ended with treasure, she'd been sure of it. So, she had closed the gap between them, leaning over the edge to peer into the swirling dark river water.

"Where?" Leiko had asked, the water had been deep enough that she couldn't see the bottom from where she stood. 

Iwao never answered her, or rather the sharp push from two hands on her back had been the closest to a response as she'd ever gotten from him. She had tumbled into the river head-first, and while she hadn't been able to catch a glimpse of the riverbed from the shore, the water wasn't as deep as it appeared. She wouldn't be able to recall the exact event itself, or her time in the water, but the easy assumption is that she had smacked her head against the rocks not far below the water's surface, and then flailed in a poor attempt to reorient herself as the current dragged her downstream. 

What she could recall was that it'd been her grandfather that fished her from the water, seemingly moments after Iwao had pushed her in. Her grandfather had clutched her to his chest, just holding her for a moment, before he spoke.

"What were you thinking?" He demanded from Iwao, "Were you trying to kill her?"

"I—No, Papa!" He defended, the panic in her cousin's voice going unnoticed over the rushing of blood in her ears.

"Wait here," He instructed with a softer voice than what he was using on Iwao.

She stood, shaking in place, "Papa—"

"No, Leiko."

Iwao let of an incomprehensible wail, struggling against their grandfather's grip on the back of his shirt.

"Quiet!" Papa commanded, dragging Iwao to the water's edge, "Are you listening to me, boy?"

She couldn't hear what Iwao said in response, but her grandfather continued to shake the boy demanding to know what he was thinking.

"Papa," She tried again, stumbling forward on the rocks, "Papa!"

"I said quiet!" He yelled with his bottom lip curled into a sneer. His eyes hard and unforgiving as he stared Leiko down. "You're gonna sit there, and you're gonna shut up. Understand?"

With her lips locked together and her limbs shaking uncontrollably all she could manage was a jerky nod. 

He turned away from her, and instead of continuing to yell at Iwao he stepped into the water, dragging the boy along with him until they were deep enough that Iwao's feet wouldn't be able to brush the riverbed. 

He had held the boy under, one hand fisted in the back of his shirt and the other on the back of his head. She watched as her cousin flailed uselessly against the river's current and her grandfather. He had brought the boy up, letting the child cough and take greedy mouthfuls of air, and then down into the water again. She counted each one, five times Iwao was dunked back into the water and he flailed just as desperately each time. It seemed to go on forever. Painfully dragged out as she stood shivering on the beach waiting for it to be over.

•

"No."

"I didn't come here for your permission, old man."

She held my breath, gazing resolutely at her lap, and watching as her hands twisted together nervously. It was the tension that kept her at the table, the fear of what would happen if she turned and ran from the room at that moment.

"Get out," Her grandfather growled quietly, and when the man didn't immediately move to obey his words he stood. "Get out!"

Leiko glanced upwards then, truly frozen when her eyes locked with the man's own from the other side of the table. He was a stranger to her, but he looked at her as if she wasn't one to him. His grey pupil-less eyes seemed to peer into her as if viewing her very soul.

"Aye," He finally said as he moved to stand, "And I'll be back."

Grandfather did not offer his hand, and the man didn't seem to expect him to, he left through the front door before Grandfather could move around the table to escort him out.

 _I'll be back_ , the wind seemed to say as it rattled the windows. She prayed he didn't, but Leiko couldn't shake the feeling that such things as prying would help her.

•

They didn't look alike, not really.

Where his hair was the golden blond of wheat ready to be harvested, hers was the dark brown colour of fresh mud. His skin had been pale like the milk Deijī gave Iwao's parents each morning, her own the same dark tan as her grandfather's weathered skin. Her fingers short and her nails mangled, her nose flat where his was sharp, her cheeks plump instead of hollow, and her lips full instead of thin. But from the center of her face, a pair of grey pupil-less eyes stared back at Leiko from the mirror, so similar it was like looking at that the man across the table all over again.

•

As he promised, he returned.

•

"You will call me Father," he explained, "You are of my blood, you will be Yamanaka Leiko from now on, and I, your father."

It'd felt as if something was lodged in her throat, she couldn't breathe, and her eyes stung with unshed tears.

"Say it!" Yamanaka—No, her father commanded. 

She could not shrink away from him with his hands gripping my arms hard enough to bruise.

"Yes, F—Father."

He smiled then, sharp and mean.

•

Konoha was her home now, these people with pale hair like her father and their shared eyes were her family now. 

She hated them, hated the paleness of their skin, the sleekness of their hair, and the accent curling at the edges their words. She hated all of it.

•

She caught Inoyuki's hand before it could strike Leiko, Inori's words dragged from her mouth through clenched teeth.

"What, pray tell, are you doing?"

Part of Leiko knew not to watch the proceedings, being a witness to what was playing out would be twisted into an unthinkable crime in Inoyuki's mind. She would be laughing as Inoyuki's own daughter shamed her in front of the family, after all, Leiko was nothing more than the lowly bastard daughter of her youngest son. Leiko didn't turn away, she would savour this instance she decided, the way Inoyuki shook when faced with Inori's rage.

"Disciplining the brat," Inoyuki hissed, unflinching as she stared up into her daughter's eyes. 

The elderly woman's words seemed to just enrage Inori further, causing her to tighten her hold around the old woman's wrist. The bones seeming to creak under the pressure, and if Inoyuki's wince was anything to go by they did.

"She is Inoki's daughter, your granddaughter."

And that hurt, a sharp pain that seemed to only linger cruelly in Leiko's chest. Was that the only reason Inori cared because they were blood? The smack she prevented would have been preferable, Leiko decided.

"A stain upon our name," Inoyuki spat in turn, trying to twist her hand free. For a moment Leiko thought she was going to accomplish her goal, that Inoyuki's daughter would submit like all the other members of the family had before her. "The reason you have not married Inoich—"

The crack of the bones breaking and the sharp cry was not what Leiko had been expecting, causing her to jump back in surprise.

"Pathetic," Inori spat, "I'll do more, just give me a reason."

Inoyuki took a couple of long gasping breathes, her good hand cradling her injured wrist to her chest as she looked down in shock.

"I see you try something, you look at her the wrong way—I'll kill you."

Inodai stood then, seeming to break himself from the shocked stupor that he and the others sat around the table had fallen into.

"Inori, that is too far—"

Inori whirled on Inodai quicker than Leiko was able to follow, and while she couldn't see Inori's face it was easy for the younger girl to assume that the look must have been feral. Inodai shrunk back under Inori's heated gaze, seeming to think better than to voice his thoughts and further.

"No," She said simply, "It's clearly not enough."

•

"Come," Inori commanded as she swept passed Leiko, out of the room that contained their gathered family. "Pack only what is important to you, I can't have you stay here another night."

"I—" It wasn't a hard decision for Leiko to make, abandoning the life that her father said was hers. "Yes, I'll pack."

•

"I should warn you," Inori started, her voice almost hesitant. "We will not be living alone."

Leiko had nothing to say to that, what could she say after what Inori did to Inoyuki.

"Her name is Shinju..." Inori stopped, turning to face Leiko instead of staring straight ahead. "Leiko, all this is sudden, but she is important to me. I trust her with my life, she will not harm you."

•

Leiko would never admit it, not even to Shinju whenever she eventually returned, but she felt no more powerful than she had three years ago when her father—Inoki—came for her. She was still that trembling little girl hiding behind her grandfather's pant leg. Maybe deep down that was who she would always be.

•

She liked Team 7, she liked how Obito wasted time helping the elderly with their groceries, how Kakashi spent his time between training in things she struggled to grasp and bitching about Obito, and she liked how Minato-Sensei seemed to be trying to strick a balance between the two, never losing his temper. They made her feel like there was hope, like she was and could continue to be with every passing day a better person.

•

The words just seemed to rattle around inside her skull, over and over and over again. An all-consuming pain that couldn't be penetrated. It was disbelief, she was sure, that triggered such a response as denial. Inori couldn't be dead.

Minato-Sensei's hand on her back was steadier than the ground beneath her feet.

•

_"He has a child," Beetle hissed in the silence followed their retreat from Danzō's rooms, "A girl, the same age as—"_

_"Do not test me, because I will not hesitate to cut down those that stand in my way. Whether it is that girl or..."_

_"Civet—"_

_"No. We do this and then we are done. On one else is hurt."_

•

"Chin up, kid."

"Shinju!"

Shinju greeted Leiko's enthusiastic tackle with relieved laughter, clutching her tearful niece in a bone-crushing hug. She leaned back, taking Leiko's face in her hands to get a good look at her, snot and tears streaming down Leiko's face.

"I think you've grown, kid."

"I'm twelve now," Leiko exclaimed, "Of course I've grown!"

"Oh, you're so old!" Shinju teased, ruffling Leiko's unbraided hair. "I heard you're a genin now, how's the team?"

•

 _She could hear him panting,_ wheezing _away from behind the door, a_ mumbled _exchange between the two of them interspersed between the ragged breaths. Sweet promises from between teeth clenched in pain, she was sure._

•

It was sunny when they visited her headstone, sunny like it had been when the funeral was held. She hadn't been buried here, or in Konoha, even her ashes hadn't been scattered. There had been nothing to do anything with, they hadn't bothered to retrieve her.

Shinju set the flowers they'd picked out at the base of the grave, a whisper loud enough meant for Leiko to catch.

" _Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die._ "

 _But you did die_ , Leiko thought uncharitably, _you died and left us alone_. _Left me alone_.

•

 _Her head tilted to the side, the light catching on the pale grey eye hidden behind the beetle mask. It shimmered with unshed tears,_ _confirming what Civet already knew._

•

"Shinju!"

Leiko could hear Minato-Sensei's muffled laughter from behind her.

"Ah, don't worry Leiko, embarrassing you is my job."

•

_"He will do as he's told, for his daughter."_

_She said it like that just to be cruel._

•

Her foot slid forward, deeper into the mud than she had intended. There were three sharp rocks caught between the sandal and her right foot.

The spiked club came down again, but grinding against her arm instead of catching on her kunai like it'd done the previous time. The ditch that had become their battlefield in the rushed attack was strangely silent, even the thunder that should have forwarded the blast of lightning that lit up her surroundings was absent. She couldn't tell if Obito was still behind her in the muck, she didn't dare look.

The club went up again, she dodged that swing easily enough, one of the rocks bit into the arch of her foot. There. An opening in his guard, there would always be one when he raised the club above his head like that, she just had a limited amount of time to—

She didn't realize he'd successfully struck her at first. One moment he towered over her with the club above his head and then she was sprawled out on her back in the mud. She felt the second blow as she struggled to get up, then the third, then the—

•••

**Author's Note:**

> The quote Shinju says at Inori's grave that Leiko looks down upon is from the poem _Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep_ by Mary Elizabeth Frye. It's a pretty commonly used quote.
> 
> This is not so much of a sequel to TFSaB but the trimmings that ended up existing when I cut the story down. (Making it a side story.) Leiko's story gives context to some of the events within TFSaB, just as Shinju's story (the italics spread out near the end) give context on what's to come. There are two official sequel stories to TFSaB, the first being Some Rain Must Fall, followed by Earth Above Your Grave. SRMF follows Arata's son, an outside look on the consequences Rin's actions had to the plot, and EAYG is those same consequences even further along. There are two side stories to come, A Fistful of Anemone which follows Kakashi directly in the aftermath of Rin's death, and Like a Cheap Threat which prefaces EAYG by giving background to the leading character.


End file.
